It was prime Roy Wakeman. Receiving his OBE from the Queen in 2013 for services to the joinery industry, which included a record three stints as president of the British Woodworking Federation (BWF), Her Majesty struck up conversation. She asked what he did in joinery. He responded “we make doors and windows’” Having noticed Buckingham Palace’s “less than regal” sashes, he then added “and by the way Ma’am, you ought to have your windows done”.
It’s a typical episode from Roy’s rumbustious and frank memoirs, ‘One Hull of a journey’. They portray a through-andthrough businessman with an eye for an opportunity, but also one with a keen sense of humour, not averse to telling jokes against himself. At the same time there’s unabashed pride in his achievements, having risen from a post-war Hull prefab to run and grow multi- million pound businesses – and appear in the New Year’s honours list.
The journey is related at breathless pace with admirable economy. It rattles through a career boldly lived in just 130 pages.
It’s also a no holds barred account. It details personal and business relationships and the occasional scrap and misdemeanour in Roy’s youth. With life-long friend Alan and two lookouts, he once attempted to steal beer from a pub for a party. But the landlord spotted the thieves and the police nabbed and prosecuted the lookouts. However, there were upsides to the tale.
“The others didn’t grass us up and we were able to regale the girls at the party with our story.”
Roy is also brutally honest about tough decisions he had to make to turn around various businesses he worked at.
One of five siblings, he was born in 1946 in grim times for Hull. Rationing continued into the 1950s and the city had been devastatingly bombed in the war.
“I used to say that there were two reasons to go to Hull then – to see what the end of a railway line looks like or throw yourself into the King George Dock,” he writes.
From a young age Roy showed signs of the determination that brought him business success. Told by his school it wasn’t worth his taking the 11-plus, he went to another to take it one Saturday morning and passed. Ultimately he left Shakespeare Hall Grammar with just one O-level, being failed in two others for completing them in pencil through lack of a pen.
There was, however, plenty of work to be had and Roy became a management trainee at Union Cold Storage, an importer of fruit, fish and whale meat. Always on the lookout for new opportunity, he continued to scan the job ads. Besides fish, Hull’s other major import was wood. His friend Alan already worked in the trade for Montague L Meyer and when it advertised for an assistant transport manager he applied, stretched the truth about his typing ability, and got the job. His career in timber had begun
There were plenty of distractions, including football and betting on the dogs, but Roy also strove to better his prospects, taking the Commercial and Technical Certification of the Institute of Wood Science.
He mastered the job, but found the stress on volume sales and the rebate system, which led to discounting below costs at the end of each financial period, a “very narrow way of looking at the business”. He determined to “learn more about marketing to add value” and run a company better.
“I always tried to improve and think ahead. Looking at those who were senior to me, I thought : ‘How can I do the job that guy’s doing and ensure it’s done properly?’.”
He next moved to Gliksten Doors as an estimator, but it wasn’t long before he was once again itching for more and when the East Midlands regional sales position came up, he went for it. A little more truth stretching – saying he could drive – helped secure the post. It was coming up to Christmas 1968 and the job started January, so driving lessons were in order – and fast.
Moving to Nottingham for the role, he met his first wife, Jude, whose father David was a successful grocery trade businessman.
Then he was headhunted by joinery firm Trent Holdings as sales and marketing manager. It was a steep learning curve and the business was “not in a good place”.
“But I managed to turn things around and soon was almost running the show.”
Trent was acquired not long after by accountant David Sawyer – and it became clear Roy and the firm’s new chairman did not see eye-to-eye. The latter thought it a bright idea to diversify into coffee tables. Eight thousand were made and none sold, until Roy, who’d opposed the move, drew on his father-in-law’s contacts to find a customer. Eventually Barkers of London took the lot.
Roy was also at odds with David Sawyer himself and they parted company.
The oil crisis notwithstanding, he then got a job as product manager at the Crosby joinery group and within five years was chief executive of sales and marketing.
While there he got an unexpected call from playwright Michael Frayn. He wanted to know if people in Roy’s industry had fun! He was researching for a new play and Roy obliged him from a wealth of anecdotes. ‘Make and Break’ went on to win the London Evening Standard Award for best comedy.
Less amusing was the early 80s recession. Business was tough and Roy forecast Crosby was set to make a loss. He advised that it cut 300 jobs or go bust.
The next move was to Bowater Building Products, where he became managing director of Bowater Joinery, again tasked with turning the business around. It was challenging. Unions were at the height of their power and didn’t take kindly to management on the shop floor. Roy insisted, however, and was met with “six hundred workers banging their tools on their workstations to show their disapproval of my presence in ‘their space’”.
Bowater Joinery needed serious surgery, but was another successful revival, losing £4m in 1985, but making a £2m profit in 1986.
In 1987 Roy was instrumental in selling the business to a Swedish investment bank – he also became BWF president for the first time, the youngest ever in the role.
When his period of office ended, he decided with colleagues to launch a management buyout of Bowater. It cost £12m and Roy had to dig deep, secretly remortgaging his house. But four years later Norcros bought the business, renamed Sarek Joinery, for £16m. “I was suddenly a million pounds richer, which meant I could finally tell my wife I’d remortgaged our home,” says Roy.
Another call from headhunters led to Roy becoming chief executive of Whitecroft plc’s building products division, which included Leaderflush Doors. In a key move, he started the latter making fully factory-finished fire door sets, whereas previously it sent doors out for window fitting. “It took 18 months to master the process, but turnover tripled,” writes Roy.
His subsequent move was to engineer Whitecroft’s acquisition of the Americanowned, £18m-turnover Shapland & Petter joinery firm for just £2.75m to form Leaderflush Shapland, later LS Group.
In the noughties, Roy became chairman of the Construction Confederation, a role which brought him the ear of politicians, including on new rules for building site health and safety.
LS Group meanwhile continued to grow and Roy helped persuade the SIG construction product group to buy it.
“It was great news for me as I owned 40%,” he writes.
He was then invited to head up Walton Garden Buildings. It was not an entirely happy experience, but the cloud had a silver lining as Roy met second wife Kirsty at the company.
The final chapter of One Hull of a Journey covers the establishment, with partner Mark de Rozarieux, of their own operation, The Performance Window Group. The acquisition of Mumford and Wood was the first building block, followed by Clearwood Joinery, online operation timberwindows.com and Dale Joinery. Roy later stepped back from day-to-day running of the business, but remained a shareholder. The business, now the Performance Timber Products Group, was acquired by Bergs Timber of Sweden in 2021.
At the close of his memoir, Roy looks back at his life and career with some satisfaction.
“I hope my story – and my generation’s willingness to think of the potential in the things we do rather than just the risk – provides inspiration for those who aim high, no matter how old or what their background,” he concludes.
That’s not the end of the story, however. As you can read in his guest column in this edition, Roy is now involved with the New Window Co (see p16). The journey continues.
